The Flash (2023)
Yeah, my attempt to write a review for this movie was as troubled as the movie's creation. At this point I've lost like three drafts to this movie, so I'm just going to give a quick impression about the movie and be done with it.
So this is kind of the swan song to the rather sad fate of the DCEU. I think there are a couple of projects that are technically tied to it, like Aquaman 2 and Blue Beetle, but... the DCEU just had terrible luck, huh? From simply being outpaced by the Marvel Cinematic Universe in terms of the quality and frequency of movies, in terms of scope and scale, and the sheer erratic quality and tone of the movies. Not to mention WB already losing faith in the DCEU, releasing multiple independent DC comics property movies like The Batman and Joker. But The Flash, originally titled Flashpoint, really is just the final nail in the coffin.
And... it's kind of a shame, because on the surface it's not a bad movie. It's just one that's released after the relevance of Ezra Miller's version of the character almost six years after his debut in Justice League, and... knowing that this is basically both the first spotlight and the final spotlight for this actor and the character (in no small part due to Miller's own real-life crimes) does make this movie feel kind of... it feels like it's building up to nothing, basically.
The movie itself just feels 'competent', and I actually feel like it's nowhere as bad as people made it out to be. There are some spotty CGI, yes, but I really do feel like the movie's biggest problem is a lack of relevance. It's hardly the first adaptation of 'Flashpoint', which was already done by a cartoon movie and the CW Flash show, and both of those did the legwork by giving much more impact and weight behind Barry's backstory. The Marvel TV shows and movies have already done the multiverse angle, and it's really not helping matters that Flash debuted around the same summer that the much more excellent Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse did.
The opening of the movie, questionable baby CGI aside, is pretty good. We get to see a quick exposition-dump of Barry's situation with Henry Allen being wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of Barry's mom Nora; while Barry is kinda-sorta flirting with Iris West. Oh, and Batman and Alfred is using him as kind of a gofer, telling him to evacuate citizens while Batman goes around chasing terrorists. We get a short cameo from Wonder Woman as well, which is nice, though it's all just glorified cameos sine none of these guys actually matter compared to the already-maligned 'basically a cameo' roles in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness.
(Superman and Aquaman not being available; and Cyborg's actor leaving in bad terms with DC, probably didn't help matters either).
In the midst of it all, Barry accidentally runs back through time, and we get to see him angsting a fair bit before he finally returns to the past and prevents Nora's death from happening by swapping out the can of tomatoes that his father went out to buy, leaving Nora and Barry alone in the house. But a monstrous speedster attacks Flash as he tries to return to 2023. Instead, Barry shows up in 2013, meeting his younger self and realizing that without all the trauma and drive from Nora's death, he's an irresponsible hippie. 'Our' Barry tries to get 2013!Barry to get his superpowers, but the meddling with time causes lightning to strike both of them, robbing 'our' Barry of powers and giving 2013!Barry powers.
And admittedly, I actually do like what they are doing from a writing standpoint. Giving the older Barry a younger self to pal around with gives him a 'mentee' figure of sorts, while also actually being a foreshadowing for the Dark Flash we see in the climax of the movie, which I thought was somewhat obvious when we reach the climax but a welcome buildup as well since 2013!Barry is an impulsive, dumbass twit. It's just that... well, 2013!Barry is annoying as all hell, and while some of his antics are okay, I did really feel like he overstayed his welcome by a fair bit.
Also, the timeline has changed -- both the past and the future -- as Barry later explains with strands of spaghetti. We find this timeline in the climax of Man of Steel, and... it's an interesting but ultimately watered-down version of most adaptations of Flashpoint as the Barrys learn and try and figure out what is different in this timeline. The other members of the JLA either never existed or haven't gained powers yet, while the changes in the timeline has caused Bruce Wayne to... well, he goes from being Ben Affleck to Michael Keaton.
And now, I absolutely adore Michael Keaton in this role as Old Man Batman, even if the movie itself really isn't super-clear on whether this is the same Batman from the Tim Burton movies, or if it's an altered version of Affleck's Batman, or... well, our old actor is back, don't question too much! I mean, I enjoy the cameo as much as anyone who grew up on the Tim Burton movies!
Batman and the Flashes go on the Batplane to Siberia to recover the Kryptonian pod, only to find that instead of Kal-El, they find an emaciated Kara Zor-El, who's far less happy to help out humans after being tortured in Siberia. It's an... interesting twist, to replace the starved and tortured Superman from the comics' Flashpoint with a female version of herself. And despite looking rather sub-par in the trailers, I actually think that Sasha Calle plays a 'bad future' Supergirl pretty well.
Again, there's always some fun action scene to break things up, with Batman and Supergirl both being easily the highlights of the show. Eventually through some shenanigans, Present!Barry also gains his powers back while earning the friendship and respect of Supergirl and Old Man Batman respectively. I actually do like this part of the movie a fair bit, I must confess.
However, the climax happens, and... and it's not the most interesting thing in the world. General Zod is reduced to a boring unbeatable villain. There are a lot of fun visuals here and there, and I'm not complaining. My favourite has to be all the scenes with the Batplane, as well as Supergirl and Zod's initial beatdown... but there's also something neat to see when present!Barry straight-up murders a Kryptonian to save 2013!Barry.
Ultimately, though, Zod kills Kara and Bruce dies flying the Batplane into a forcefielded Kryptonian ship. This causes the Barrys to travel back in time... only for Kara to still die to Zod, and Bruce gets killed by Nam-Ek this time. And 2013!Barry just keeps going back in time again and again, gathering more and more Kryptonian debris grafted onto his body and telling us who the true identity of the Dark Flash is. In a neat twist, however, 'our' 2013!Barry hasn't completed his transformation into Dark Flash thanks to time paradox shenanigans, leading to a triple-Barry confrontation in the Speed Force.
(We also get cameos by other Batmen, Supermen and Supergirls, including a surprising one from the never-made Superman Lives starring Keanu Reeves)
Ultimately, we get a rather interesting moral about 'responsibility' and 'time is unchangeable'. Dark Flash kills 2013!Barry, and 'our' Barry goes back to the past to put back that damn can of tomatoes. And... this is where the movie falls short. I don't necessarily mind the fatalistic moral that 'time cannot be changed, accept your fate', because while it does run contrary to most optimistic superhero shows it is a responsibility-related moral and arguably causing just enough of a change to free Henry thanks to time-travel mumbo-jumbo would be enough to give us a flawed but consistent moral.
But then that's ignoring the fact that the 'Nora lives' timeline is... kind of fucked. None of 'our' Barry's actions are going to save Keaton-Batman and Supergirl, who I guess are just doomed to die with little fanfare after the Flashes return to the Speed Force. And then at the end of the movie we learn that Barry might've fucked up the timeline anyway with George Clooney's Batman showing up for a gag... and then the end credits close?
It's just... it's just messy near the end, despite the relatively earnest acting done by Ezra Miller. And really, a good chunk of this movie and how good it is really does depend on how much you tolerate Miller's version of the Flash. It's an okay movie at the end of the day, albeit with an odd, truncated ending, but with better adaptations of Flashpoint and a definite lack of followup to the climax of this movie, it really does feel like a gigantic oddball. I did enjoy the cameos, for what it's worth, and Michael Keaton is always fun to see, but otherwise... yeah. This movie sure does exist, and I think the confusing tone really dose make it a rather apt epitaph for the DCEU in general.
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